Ben Ely Photography: Project 365 - Week 29 "Day of the Spanish Horse"

Hello again to everyone. I'm back again with some new photos for you. This weeks selection comes from the Day of the Spanish Horse festival held at Estrella Mountain Park here in Goodyear, AZ. It was a great event and a beautiful day for one such as it. It's no wonder that this is the time of year that people from all across the states come to Arizona.

The festival is a way to celebrate Spanish culture and display Andalusians as well as several other breeds of horses. The morning was filled with dance, food (traditional paella) & wine, and of course, a variety of horse routines. Some of the trainers that worked with the horses were amazing, particularly Miguel Undabarrena who showed amazing skill in his riding and handling of the different horses.

Photographically, this was a very tough experience but I took the opportunity to learn a lot. I have never photographed an event such as this one and there was the added level of difficulty that I have very little experience around horses. My wife laughed at me due to the fact that early on, I was running from one side of the arena to the other as transitions between dancers and horse routines were occurring at a fairly rapid pace. After running around and failing at getting any good panning shots of horses trotting across the field, I decided to move to the horse staging area where I was able to get up close to several of the horses. I found myself laughing when the horses recognized me as a person of interest and would pose for me as I took photos of them.

All in all, it was a great experience and I'm happy that I was able to try my hand at photographing a whole new world to me. I've been extremely happy with several of the recent events that we have attended at Estrella Mountain Park lately and hope that they are able to continue with great programs and festivals such as this.